refugium sand or mud?

[glipper69]

I am currently using Miracle mud as my sediment in my refugium and its gettting to about that time where I have to change it, so I am curious to what all you guys are using or recommend and what has been your experiences.

Thanks,
FRank

 

[House of Laughter]

Frank,

I use sand with a mix of miracle mud. Haven't changed it and don't plan to .

Hop that helps,

House

 

[beyondnp]

I also have never changed my marine sediment (from Kent as well as miracle mud mixture). This may be obvious, but be careful when you change it as you dont want to release too many toxins.

 

[glipper69]

How long have u had it maybe I shouldn't even bother than, I was just going by ecosystem's recommmendations of changing 1/2 ever 2 years.

That may also just be a money maker for them.

Frank

 

[jackson6745]

Frank I used to run a bare bottom fuge. Macros grew like crazy but not much life with this method. If you simply just want to grow macros to reduce nitrates than BB is the way to go since you can siphon out all detritus and keep it clean.
If you're looking for all the life that a fuge can carry I would suggest a shallow southdown sandbed. I never understood what the MM supposed to do that an aragonite sanbed couldn't. It says it realeases all sorts of minerals (including iron) but since we don't test for these minerals I don't see a point to it or spending the extra cash. From what I have seen any reef with proper husbandry and good water quality will have lots of life and very colorful corals....with a fuge or without a fuge, with mud or withouth mud, DSB or BB etc...

hth,
Rich

 

[maxpower2112]

Hey Rich is there any benifits of having "life" in the fuge, i think we are going to go BB on our fuge. cant wait to have a skimmer on my tank!

 

[beyondnp]

My tank has been up for close to 2 years... I would presume Jim's has been up for awhile as well.

As long as you have a sasndbed, you cant go wrong either way in my opinion

 

[glipper69]

I pretty much have no sand in my tank. its pretty shallow just a skim coat maybe about 1/2" inch. so I would think that I would need the deep fuge bed for a nitrate removal.

I pretty much have been following the ecosystem method (with a skimmer) since I started about 4 years ago. It has worked great for me. So I worry about changing drastically mid stream, and then I would have to change my habits and routines with it also and that means a lot more learning all over again.

So now I am even more confused as to what to do.

Frank